Chapter 7
Chapter 7
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 7
Chapter Title: A Different Person
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Those eyes were the problem, after all.
‘Since when did she ever look at me with such familiarity?’
If it weren’t for those eyes, I wouldn’t have been heading to Eun Haon’s lab in the middle of the day.
I didn’t know why she was looking at me like that, but for a moment, I almost believed her when she said she was from another dimension.
If she hadn’t demanded an Awakening Sphere without even giving me any information, I might have actually believed her.
From drifting around small gangs to becoming a hero at sixteen, it had already been six years.
To still be shaken by such a ridiculous ploy… it bruised my pride a little.
‘Isn’t this just her messing with me for fun?’
I suspected that might be the case, and the more I thought about it, the more plausible it seemed.
Just last week, Eun Haon, complaining she was bored to death, held a special lecture titled ‘How to Effectively Swindle Morons.’
“Aaaah!”
Just then, a commotion broke out a block away.
Juyeol casually adjusted his helmet, zooming in.
Crash!
The glass door of a jewelry store shattered, and the street instantly descended into chaos.
“Get out of my way!”
The culprit, who had stuffed jewelry into a bag, began to flee on a motorcycle.
The police, sirens wailing, gave chase. Seeing them, the culprit drove recklessly and pulled out a gun.
Juyeol quickly switched to the next lane and pursued the culprit.
‘I need to take care of this quickly.’
He sped up, overtaking the police car with the broken side mirror.
At the appearance of the hero, Ghost, emerging from behind the police car, the culprit cursed and accelerated.
Juyeol's gaze swept down from the culprit's head.
Helmet, on properly.
Jacket, looks sturdy.
Gloves, secured tightly.
Boots, covering the ankles.
After assessing the culprit's gear and the oncoming traffic, Juyeol drew the gun from his hip and, without hesitation, shot him in the thigh.
“Ugh, aaargh!”
The culprit and his motorcycle crashed loudly onto the road. Thanks to his sturdy gear, he wasn't bleeding anywhere except for the gunshot wound.
Juyeol fired his grappling gun to prevent the motorcycle from colliding with other cars.
Screeeech. Squeal─.
The motorcycle, scraping along the road, caught on the grapple and stopped in the middle of the center lane.
The hero, stopping beside it, kicked the culprit's gun far away.
‘Right. This is it. Taking down scum like this is my job.’
The fog that had clouded his mind cleared a little.
‘Not getting pushed around by the likes of Dr. Eun.’
Juyeol glared at the fallen culprit, steeling his resolve.
‘I can't let her take the lead. I can't let her manipulate me.’
Just then, the people gathered on the sidewalk began to murmur, just like last night.
“It's Ghost.”
“Did he try to kill him with that grapple?”
“What if there was an accident?”
The atmosphere wasn't one of cheering for the capture of a criminal.
“Didn't an article say Ghost was suspended?”
“I saw that too. Isn't he not supposed to lay a hand on criminals?”
He, who usually paid no mind to people's reactions, frowned at those words.
He turned to see the police approaching. It would be a hassle if they brought up his suspension.
Juyeol quickly left the scene.
‘Let them run their mouths.’
He believed that to resolve incidents quickly and without casualties, it didn't matter if the criminal was severely injured or even died, depending on the crime.
Besides, they had committed the crime knowing the risks, so he didn't feel sorry for them.
Unlike other heroes who were always friendly to citizens, he didn't act warmly. He didn't think it was necessary.
Perhaps because of this disposition, citizens feared Ghost, and even the police looked upon him unfavorably.
‘Once I catch *him*, I'm quitting this job anyway.’
Juyeol accelerated, gliding off the road.
A newspaper on a stand fluttered, revealing the results of a poll: ‘Voted #1 Scariest Hero by Citizens.’
On it was a picture of Ghost aiming his gun.
* * *
A hand in a black glove peeled a note off the lab's whiteboard.
「Juyeol. Did you come by? If so, come to my place! I'm sleeping.」
Juyeol stared at the note, then crumpled it with a rustle.
‘Is she really out of her mind?’
Everyone knew Eun Haon's penthouse was on the roof of her lab.
She would often set off huge fireworks from the roof, leading to reports of suspected explosions.
As far as Juyeol knew, no hero had ever set foot in there. The same went for villains, if they were male.
‘Except for one guy.’
He knew it as a place frequented only by a few women she knew.
But now she was suddenly telling him to come to her place, saying she was asleep.
Was she telling me to come into her bedroom and wake her up?
‘Either she's crazy, or it's a trap.’
He couldn't think of any other possibility.
Juyeol drew his gun from its holster and went up to the rooftop. He noticed something strange right away.
‘Why is that turned off?’
The anti-intrusion system wasn't active.
That was the reason heroes couldn't get into the penthouse.
It triggered all sorts of traps and fired lasers, making it difficult to infiltrate even under suspicious circumstances.
‘Did she turn it off because she invited me? Would she go that far?’
This made it even more suspicious. Juyeol's eyes sharpened.
He readjusted his grip on the gun and entered the penthouse silently.
It was quiet. No, listening closely, he could hear a faint moan coming from somewhere.
“Ughh…”
There it was. He moved quickly toward the presence he felt.
An axe lay on the floor, and the door had marks on it as if it had been struck by one.
Click.
Having cocked his gun, Juyeol kicked the door open with a bang!
What he saw was an empty bed and, underneath it, Eun Haon curled up, wrapped in a blanket.
“...?”
Deflated, Juyeol scanned the bedroom. No traps, no hostages.
“Hic, ugh.”
There was only a woman, like a crumpled hamster, groaning and shivering.
Juyeol crouched in front of her, looking down at Haon in disbelief.
“Hey. You're not the kind of conscientious person to be tormented by nightmares, are you?”
He prodded her cold-sweat-drenched forehead with the muzzle of his gun, and Haon's eyelids fluttered open groggily.
Her eyes, not yet fully awake, blinked slowly, looking dazed.
“Stop being so frustrating and just tell me if you're finally going to give me a straight answer.”
At his words, her small lips parted, and she mumbled groggily.
“Ugh, B-Blue.”
Then she grabbed tightly onto the hem of Juyeol's clothes.
“What now, dammit.”
Startled, he raised the pistol as if to strike Haon's head with the grip.
“Everyone, run. Quick. Run away…!”
But he flinched at the words she spoke while trembling violently.
“Run. Quickly…”
Haon sobbed, murmuring over and over. It sounded too desperate and pitiful to be ordinary sleep-talking.
“Juyeol…”
Juyeol's brow furrowed deeply.
“Juyeol, run. You can't die…”
The hand holding the pistol slowly lowered.
“Haaah.”
He wiped a hand down his grimacing face.
‘…This is the worst.’
Juyeol was overcome with a terrible feeling.
The type who's a total coward but becomes selfless and unhesitating in a crisis.
The type who'd throw themselves in front of another hostage to protect them, even though their crying would obviously give away their hiding spot.
It was the type of hostage he never wanted to encounter in the field.
And now, of all people, ‘Dr. Eun Haon’ was sleep-talking like that kind of hostage.
As if she'd really become a different person.
“Hey.”
Juyeol scratched his head with the gun's muzzle and sighed.
Haon was still clinging to his arm, sobbing.
He could have shaken her off easily enough, but he couldn't, and it was all because of those eyes.
Eyes that were scared to death, yet filled with the resolve to do *something*.
“Hey! You, really.”
The idea that this Eun Haon was from another dimension was more convincing than the idea that ‘the’ Eun Haon's personality had suddenly changed overnight.
Juyeol's jaw tensed. The moment he started thinking like that about this obvious ploy, he was already caught in her web.
‘And I'd just resolved not to be swayed by her.’
Juyeol grabbed Haon by the collar and forced her to meet his eyes.
“What the hell is this? Did you change your method of driving people crazy? Shit. You're messing with my head so much I'm going insane.”
“...Juyeol?”
As focus slowly returned to Haon's eyes, they welled up with tears.
“I'm losing my mind.”
“Juyeoooool.”
As if finding the face of her most precious friend, Haon burst into tears and threw her arms around his neck.
Juyeol flinched and tried to pull back, but Haon burrowed deeper, as if refusing to let go.
“Whoa, wait—.”
Flustered, Juyeol tried to back away while still crouching, but ended up sitting on the floor. He now found himself with a crying Eun Haon in his lap.
Her small body was trembling with a sorrow that was almost palpable.
‘Ah. This really fucking sucks.’
Deciding to just let things be, Juyeol left Haon as she was.
She cried for so long that the nape of his neck became damp.
‘She's crying her heart out. It's annoying.’
Juyeol slowly began to accept it. He'd doubted it several times, but this wasn't an act.
Unless she'd manipulated her own memories as part of some brilliant scheme. This mad scientist was certainly capable of that.
The important thing was that Eun Haon was not in her right mind.
‘Is that why? She's being strangely friendly.’
Fingering the gun in his hand, Juyeol looked down at Dr. Eun Haon, who was hugging him.
‘…How can I use this to my advantage?’
His suspension had cut off all support from Hero Headquarters, and now, as luck would have it, a genius scientist who'd lost her mind was clinging to him.